Doing business easier in Belarus than in Poland

Poland ranks 70th in the world in terms of the ease of doing business, according to the World Bank's "Doing Business 2011" report. Although Poland bettered its position by three places since last year, it still ranked lower than countries such as Rwanda, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

The only EU countries that fared worse than Poland were Italy (80th) and Greece (109th).

According to the research, it takes an average of 32 days to complete all the procedures necessary to set up a business in Poland, whereas in Romania (56th) it takes only six. It also takes 311 days to settle all the permits to build a warehouse in Poland, compared to 189 in Hungary (46th).

Experts were unsurprised by the World Bank's poor assessment of Poland. Adam Ambrozik, director of the department of business and social dialogue in the Confederation of Polish Employers, was even more critical. He told Dziennik Polski, "I was actually shocked that Poland had gone up in the rankings. I think that this isn't due to an improvement in the situation in Poland, but rather a result of a deterioration in the conditions for doing business in other countries, brought on by the crisis."